


A Still Developing Picture

by Miriam_Heddy



Category: The Mighty Boosh
Genre: M/M, RPS - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 22:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4763336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miriam_Heddy/pseuds/Miriam_Heddy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes a photograph can't tell the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Still Developing Picture

Noel knocked on the door, used the door knocker, and then, for good measure, rang the bell. After a moment, the door opened, a crack, and Noel risked his boot by placing it in the gap. Julian glanced down at the boot, then back up at Noel, his face impassive. "Whatcha selling, little girl?"

"Ju--"

"Never you mind. We don't need any. Off you go. Shill your wares elsewhere, yeah?"

"Open the damned door, ya berk." Noel had on a black tunic over his tight, red trousers, though a quick glance might mistake it for a dress.

"What was that, dearie? You need directions to a good hairstylist, you say?"

Noel brought a hand up to push the door open, only the door swung wide and Noel stumbled in, kept upright by Julian's hands coming out to catch him. "Tosser. What was that?"

Julian shrugged, letting go and shutting the door behind Noel. 

Noel looked carefully at Julian, trying to gauge his mood. He had his ugly fishing hat on, and a plaid button-down shirt open over a stained, once-white vest. His trousers were ill-fitting--bought to accommodate the belly he no longer had. His thin lips were curled up in a smile, but the slightly bared teeth might mean he was genuinely not happy to see Noel. It was Saturday, and Noel should've phoned, but Julian might've made an excuse if he had.

"Where's--"

"With a friend till tomorrow and the boys are at their Nan's overnight."

"Leaving you alone."

"One might have said in peaceful solitude, until mere moments ago."

Noel frowned. "Shall I leave you to it, then?"

Julian brought a hand up to rub his stubbled chin, as if considering that. Then Julian reached out with his other hand and put it on Noel's shoulder, using it to pull Noel in close. 

The embrace lasted several minutes, and neither of them spoke for fear of ending the moment prematurely. Julian's arms held Noel tight against him, and Noel relaxed his body so that he fit easily, his head resting against Julian's chest where his heart kept a steady beat.

Julian began humming something over the beat and then kissed the top of Noel's head. Noel tipped his head up, curious, and Julian surprised them both by pressing his mouth against Noel's, prizing his lips open with the tip of his tongue. It was not a chaste kiss, nor was it hurried with passion. It was like returning to a book and resuming the page mid-sentence--the two parts, old and new, blending seamlessly into a single, unbroken story.

More often than not, it was like this, and neither of them thought to question it. It was--the way things were.

Julian pulled away first, though only to end the kiss. His body remained pressed against Noel's, both of them still in the darkened foyer. 

Noel said, "The fans missed you." He kept his voice soft, hoping it didn't come off as an accusation.

"Which fans are these?"

"Yours."

"I have fans?"

Noel didn't grace that with an answer. "They wanted to see you at the premier."

Julian shrugged, still holding on to Noel. "I was in the film, thus I'm quite sure they saw me. Unless they blinked very slowly, in which case they could always pay to see it a second time."

"They wanted to see you and me."

Julian looked down at Noel, his brow wrinkling a bit. "I seem to recall you being in it as well. Granted, it was a small part, and if they blinked quickly--"

"Together, Julian. They wanted to see us together."

"In bed, bumming like a pair of loose-limbed catamites, I should think. These fans of yours really are a presumptuous lot."

"Think they'd be happy with a simple clothed shot, us holding hands or somethin'."

"By candlelight, staring deeply into each other's eyes..."

"Only you'd have to open yours first," Noel pointed out, keeping it light.

"I'm too old for it. Let your silver show and I'll consider it."

"Not in this lifetime. What makes you think I've got any?"

"Seen your minge, mate. Speaking of, come to bed with me," Julian said, shifting the mood from light to something else. His eyes widened slightly, as if he'd surprised himself with the request.

"I--"

"I've put on clean sheets."

"You didn't know I was to come today."

"If you'd failed to appear, I was prepared to phone you."

"Were you?"

"Grudgingly."

Julian forbade further discussion with another kiss, this one more hurried, the sort of kiss that put Noel in mind of wheelbarrows and Julian in mind of hasty, stolen kisses in semi-public venues--kisses that tasted of fruit juice before a performance and champagne after. 

Noel curled his hands in Julian's shirt, aiming to push it off Julian's shoulders but only managing to tangle them up as Julian steered them to the stairs.

It was an awkward climb, with neither of them letting go, and they moved without grace, a grasping, moaning jumble of limbs twining together, like something made possible only by Noel's imagination and Julian's Northern stubbornness.

Julian fell backwards onto the bed, pulling Noel on top of him, and this, too, was familiar, helping each other out of costumes and clothing, stripping them both down to their pants. 

"Fuck" and "faster" and "more" were the operative words. Barely vocalised, they passed their demands in licks and bites. Once, they might have been discreet, but it had happened often enough that they had given up the pretence that this was truly secret, more than barely contained. Each time, however careful, something--however small--would give them away. A missing button, a stiff stain left in the laundry, an hour unaccounted for, a lie too convincingly told. 

It was a family secret now, a tolerable indiscretion--a necessity, they had finally argued to each other until they each believed it as fact and could present it as such.

In this, they were together, with only each other as audience, and Julian would lay himself bare and strip Noel of his well-worn patter and guile, till there was only a steady heat, the slap of flesh against flesh, the ragged breathing muted by desperate kisses, and the climax that made it possible and even necessary to part company, for a time, only to return to the act again and again.


End file.
